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Communist Party of India - Marxist [CPI-(M)] general secretary MA Baby said that the decision to support Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) was made out of prudence. Speaking to TNM, he said that any alternative to Vijay’s party forming the government would be an “opportunistic alliance”.
“Any alternative (to TVK forming the government) would be an opportunistic alliance, because those other parties were explicitly defeated by the people,” Baby told TNM.
“We wanted to prevent the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from playing political games in Tamil Nadu through the Governor, so the parties decided it was prudent to extend support to the single largest party,” he said.
Given that Vijay's TVK had a near majority, he said it was questionable why the Governor did not follow this general tradition and constitutional value. “The Governor is appointed by the BJP, so the Governor should not be given an opportunity to be viewed as an instrument of the Union interfering with state politics,” Baby said.
“If political machinations were used to prevent this single largest party from having the opportunity to prove its majority, it would lead to anger and frustration among the public. Therefore, as democratic parties, the CPI and CPI(M) decided to respect the people's directive that a new party should take charge of Tamil Nadu, ensuring there is no sabotage through devious means,” he told TNM.
The idea of Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) supporting an All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK)-led government was broached, he said.
"That alternative is an opportunistic alliance, because these other parties have been defeated by the people. The DMK was the ruling party and we were part of that, but we have been defeated. Then AIADMK was the opposition party, and the people did not elect the opposition party. The people chose a new party that just didn't get a majority. If anyone joined hands and did political machinations to prevent this single largest party from getting an opportunity to prove their majority, there will be anger among the people and there would be frustration. So, being a democratic party, the CPI and our friends in the CPI(M) have decided to respect the people's direction that a new party should take charge of Tamil Nadu, and that there should not be sabotage through devious means," he told TNM.
In an interview to India Today, he said, “The DMK wished for us to support that government. But AIADMK was defeated in the elections. DMK was also defeated. We were part of the DMK alliance; we also lost. We are not forming the government now. We are only extending support to the single largest party. The BJP and Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) are trying to prevent the single largest party from coming to power,” he added.
He added, “We are not saying that we are going to oppose DMK. But we cannot accept the political line to support AIADMK, which was a part of the NDA.”
